Deer Dick Herbs

By Karen Ko

Edited by Andrew Miles

In Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, it is recorded that in the vast mountains beyond the Great Wall, deer are abundant. The locals would wear deer headgear and hide in the dense grass, rolling up leaves and blowing through them to produce sounds. Hearing these sounds, herds of deer would gather together.

Among the herd, the male deer would mate with numerous female deer, continuing until it had mated with hundreds of them. Once finished, the male deer would collapse from exhaustion and die. The female deer, detecting the scent of the male’s death, would scatter and run to the valleys, where they would fetch a peculiar kind of herb in their mouths and place it near the male deer’s mouth to smoke. Shortly after, the male deer would revive.

At this point, the people would hurriedly sound gongs and fire off cannons. Startled, the deer herd would flee in all directions. Taking advantage of the commotion, the people would gather the miraculous herb, which was said to have the power to bring the dead back to life. This miraculous herb is known as Lu Xian Cao (dear-tongue grass).